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How-To Geek

This week we’re taking a look at multi-monitor computer gaming goodness, a simple trick to make Super Glue stronger, and a lightweight app to download all the photos from a Tumblr blog.

SoftTH Spans DirectX Games Across Multiple Monitors

Alex writes in with the following gaming tip:

I’m sure there are quite a few gamers that read HTG, I’ve got a tip to pass along. I have multiple monitors and was curious if I could get games to run in spanning mode. So far it’s been quite an adventure (and quite a mixed bag). The most success I’ve had has been using a program called SoftTH that assists in spanning DirectX driven games. I’ve successfully spanned Team Fortress 2 and Fallout 3. It’s pretty awesome playing the games with such a wide view!

If only such a solution existed for Diablo III—then that speedy Treasure Goblin would never escape us again. Thanks for sharing!

Water Improves The Strength of Super Glue

Mark writes in with a handy repair tip:

Although this isn’t directly related to software or hardware, I use Super Glue around the shop all the time and figured lots of other geeks do to. I’m from Arizona where it’s super dry for most of the year. Super Glue works by reacting with ions in water and forming a super strong polymer chain. I’ve found that very slightly wetting surfaces I’m mating together with the glue works wonders for increasing the strength of the bond. You don’t need much water at all, I use an old “envelope licker”, which is just a little bottle of water with a dense spongy tip used to wet the glue on an envelope flap. You could just as easily wet your finger or a cotton swap to prep the surface with a little moisture.

Clever trick, Mark! While we’re confident it’s humid enough where we live that there’s enough moisture for simple fixes, the next time we want to be extra sure the bond is getting all the moisture it needs, we’ll definitely use your trick.

TumblRipper Downloads All Pictures from Tumblr Blogs

Nicole writes in with the following tip:

I hacked my Kindle for custom screensavers, per your guide, but when it came time to browse that Kindle wallpaper Tumblr it seemed like I was saving every other picture! So tedious! Instead, I found a super light weight app called TumblRipper that you can just plug the Tumblr URL into and it will go through and download all the pictures. It ripped through the pile of screensaver images in no time!

Jason Fitzpatrick is warranty-voiding DIYer and all around geek. When he's not documenting mods and hacks he's doing his best to make sure a generation of college students graduate knowing they should put their pants on one leg at a time and go on to greatness, just like Bruce Dickinson. You can follow him on Google+ if you'd like.

Published 06/14/12

Comments (6)

“…cyanoacrylate (super glue) is an acrylic resin that rapidly polymerises in the presence of water (specifically hydroxide ions), forming long, strong chains, joining the bonded surfaces together…”
-from the good people at Wikipedia

Holy cow! Here is someone who actually got super glue to work on something. It seems like, for the last 20 years, everytime I have tried to repair something with super glue it doesn’t work at all and yet I keep buying tubes of the stuff and using it to no avail, except it does work good on gluing fingers together.